Matching Operators
- Further, the "//" operator can be modified to include complex pattern matching routines. For example, the period (.) matching operator is used to stand for "any" character. Thus, "/eri./" would match any occurrences of "eric" as well as "erik".
- Another commonly used matching operator is the asterisk (*). The asterisk matches zero or more occurrences of the character preceding it. Thus, "/e*ric/" matches occurrences of "eeeeeric" as well as "eric".
- The following table includes a list of useful matching operators.
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| \n | New line |
| \r | Carriage Return |
| \t | Tab |
| \d | Digit (same as [0-9]) |
| \D | Any non-digit (same as [^0-9]) |
| \w | A Word Character (same as [0-9a-zA-Z_]) |
| \W | A Non-word character |
| \s | Any white space character (\t, \n, \r, or \f) |
| \S | A non-white space character |
| * | Zero or more occurrences of the preceding character |
| + | One or more occurrences of the preceding character |
| . | Any character |
| ? | Zero or one occurrences of the preceding character |
Additional Resources:
Pattern
matching with "//"
Table of Contents
Anchors
